Padycosforbos

Paddy - like to fly by the seat of his pants and wants to just come with a couple of suitcases.. Me, (the Yorkshire OH) well I like my own stuff, love my snuggly feather duvet (which cost a fortune!) plus of course I have sentimental bits. I dont mean bringing the furniture, beds/couches etc... But you know bedding,pictures,mirrors - stuff that makes it 'your home'. Are things like this expensive over there - is it worth bringing them?? Are most rentals furnished? Mebe I am being a tad too sentimental I just think it would be easier to settle with some familiar things around, just need to convince Paddy of that lol!!

Bo-Jangles

Tell Paddy that unless he has pots of money stashed away to repurchase every scrap of personal effects that you own, then you are bringing it. Honestly you will not regret it, you need your stuff, no matter how wonky donkey it might be.

Do a wee search on this forum and you'll find the same question always gets the same response, whatever you have bring it and some.

BEVS

If you are planning to stay then bring all your stuff. In fact buy more of the stuff that you like and bring that too. You'll be glad you did.

MrsFychan

sentimental stuff can't be replaced so bring it or have it some where safe for when you want it. all the other stuff beds, chairs, linen can be purchased or hired a bit more expensive maybe than having the stuff you already have but saves on shipping costs and we have found that some of the bed linen here doesn't fit our UK duvets and had to have mattresses made to fit for the kids UK beds.

theghostofdustybin

I'm with Paddy, it's just stuff.

ellenarosemary

Bring all your sentimental bits and pieces and anything else as furniture etc costs loads and there isnt as much choice either. If you can afford it either do a part container or a whole one and bring absolutely everything - you wont regret it.

julesnye

bring everything and more.
After a while you can either sell it on Trade me, via a garage sale(like a personal boot sale) or give it away. A lot of the stuff here unless you pay a lot of money isn't that good quality compared to the UK.

Caz8NZ

Yup - it is just stuff. but everyone needs some stuff! In some cases it is worth bringing your beds/couches/tables/drawers. its all a case of working out how much it would cost to buy again here v cost of shipping and length of life left in them.

as others have said, plenty of other threads on this with info on the furniture stores - if you can't find it tell me and i'll list em down again for you to get an idea.

If you have soft furnishings (pictures/mirrors) and sentimental things that you like - again yeah bring them - why not - its nice to have your things around if you can. I just had a load of stuff shipped over that I left in the UK. I didn't come here expecting to stay so arrived with a bag and that was it. I'm grateful i didn't chuck everything out in England but again, i haven't kept absolutely everything.

It didn't cost that much to ship a few boxes of stuff over - about 150 quid.....value of what was inside it would have been around $5,000 probably to replace.

I would say shipping smaller things is relatively inexpensive - it starts adding up with the furniture and stuff. I would say - if anything is needed to convince anyone - seriously do the cost of replacing exercise and i'm almost sure shipping will work out better.

Oh and no - most rentals are unfurnished. Even down to not supplying the fridge or washer. Most come with an oven and that's about it.

Snap Shot

Please please please bring every scrap you own. Yes, even that.

We went to an immigration expo a few years ago, just for a look-see as it didn't influence our decision one way or the other. Anyway the guy there said he knew of a couple who gave their stuff away and emigrated with nothing. Two years later, he said, they are still trying to get over it.

Your stuff, bits and pieces, odds and sods don't mean a great deal to you now, but they will when you get to NZ. Especially as part of the settling process. When you've moved all your stuff and sense yourselves settling, you will probably come across something and curse yourself for not disposing of it before you left. That's better than missing some inconsequential thing, not least 'cause you were used to using it i.e. kitchen utensils, tools, the list could go on.

You will feel like you are shelling out money all over the place before, during and after your NZ process. You'll resent having to replace something you binned/gave away before you left with money you really don't have.

OK, I'll now undermine my first sentence by saying that we gave away our barbeque and petrol lawn mower. We wanted new ones so we knew that would be a legitimate replacement. I threw away genuine rubbish from the shed, garage etc. We didn't take our car, just wasn't worth it.

theghostofdustybin

6 boxes of stuff of which most of it is still in the garage after 5years.

I'm not saying chuck everything out (i dislike the disposable world we live in at the best of times), just that at the end of the day is it your stuff that makes you happy?

Caz8NZ

I find that quite interesting - what sort of stuff? would be good to give the OP examples of things that weren't really useful or worth bringing.

the stuff i got sent over was mainly clothes, bed linens, cooking books and some artwork that I bought on my travels. Oh and my massive DVD/film collection. I would say that the things that have been the least worthwhile sending were the cook books.

When i got back to visit next year i'm going to bring my food processor back with me - am coping without one for now, but would be nice to have and I would use it, but don't want to spend a couple of hundred on a new one when i have one in the UK!

theghostofdustybin

Sorry to the OP, but bored now. I'm sure whatever you decide will be right for you.

Padycosforbos

Well dont read it then I was only asking!!!!

theghostofdustybin

I know, I should know better by now, it wouldn't happen again...

Padycosforbos

Right guys - thanks for the info,so best to bring owt that we have that's half decent, beds etc? I guess I will have to have a look and see how much a container is and how much it costs, F...hell so much to think about. My mum recons its cruel to bring our old dog, she is a huge bullmastiff, deaf as a post but she does have a quality of life. My mum recons the journey would wipe her out and I should put her down. Has anyone seen how the dogs are handled - she is crate trained (I always use this for housetraining) so that wont upset her, but I wonder do they 'throw em about abit when transferring from plane to ground/to plane? they must have fork loft trucks cos she weights about 9 stone, but she is stiff and I want to be sure she is handled with extreem care - must be awful to be deaf :-( anyone worked for - -r seen the animal shipping in action?